The Royal Rebirth

In 1750 Dr Richard Russell gave life to beliefs in the healing power of drinking sea water and bathing there and breathing air full of sea flavor. Dr Russell like the others who kept up his views, recommended this fishing town as the basic health resort. The rich but unhealthy started to come down from London to see if all this was true. For many the sea air and the water did the trick, but even if it didn’t, Brighthelmston began to supply social chases at every turn, from cock-fighting to drinking and spieling.

Once George, Prince of Wales gave his approval after his visit in 1783, the leak became a positive deluge. Prince George made the new image of the city, now unformally called Brighton. Artistic, humorous and charming on one hand, he was inveterate and hedonistic on the other. But be he saint or evildoer, he left his sign physically and spiritually, mostly in the incredible Royal Pavilion. Hotels in Brighton started to spring up in the centre to compete with nearby Eastbourne; The Chain Pier, on the same location as the modern Brighton Pier, was finished in the same year, 1823, and with the classic style of houses built in the Regency time of 1811-1820, Brighton was getting many of its characteristics.